


No End to the Revelations

by sglottalk



Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Genre: Book: Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Past Abortion, Referenced Childhood Sexual Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-01
Updated: 2016-06-01
Packaged: 2018-07-11 15:54:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7059367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sglottalk/pseuds/sglottalk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are <i>always</i> surprising things to learn about one's family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	No End to the Revelations

Miles' head was still reeling from his conversation with Oliver Perrin Jole.

It had been a shock to find out that his mother was dating again. Then again, she had been widowed for three years already, and if he thought of her as a woman and not _his mother_ , it was utterly unsurprising that she had gotten a lover by now. 

Then he had found out that his father had killed men in illegal duels, and that he really had been Ges Vorrutyer's lover. That was a shock too.

Now he learned that Jole had been his father's lover for two decades.

He could not help but wonder what other family secrets were lurking beyond his knowledge, ready to hit him out of the blue like an anvil. Who _had_ killed Ges Vorrutyer? Miles realized that nobody had ever given him a straight answer to that question. Not that he was going to ask his mother, at least not now - he had had enough shocking revelations during this trip to Sergyar.

He had a sinking feeling that the worst revelation lying in wait was the answer to a question he did not even know to ask.

Would there ever be a point in his life when he would know everything relevant about his family's history that there was to know, and that all remaining secrets would remain secrets for the rest of time, or at least the rest of his lifetime? Or was he, for the rest of his life, going to be vulnerable to ambush by his family's past...

***

Ivan's jaw dropped. He knew, in the back of his mind, that it was odd that his parents had been married for five years before they had their first child, yet he had never suspected _this_.

His mother's doctor recommended that she get surgery, but she was uncertain, so she had forwarded information, including her medical history, to Ivan so he could get a second opinion from an off-world doctor that he trusted. Honestly, he had only been looking through her medical records so he would have a better idea of how he should consult the doctor.

That was when he found out that, before he had been born, his mother had had three abortions.

The medical record did not say _why_ the abortions had been performed. However, if it had been due to threat to his mother's life, that probably would have been noted. Of course, only _medical_ threats to her life would have been noted. Political threats to her life - such as, say, certain scenarios of what could have happened after Ezar's death - would not.

Ivan knew that uterine replicators were hardly available on Barrayar at the time of his birth, but they had had decent contraception back then. Or did they? Maybe they had not had good contraception, or his parents had not known which contraception methods were reliable...

Or maybe those - should he call them embryos, or should he call them brothers? Maybe they had been ... _muties_.

***

Baz Jesek and his daughter, Cordelia Bothari-Jesek, were visiting his family. Elena Bothari-Jesek had elected to spend an extra day in Vorbarra Sultana, to meet an old woman who had known her father as a child.

Meeting her mother, learning about the true nature of her father's relationship with her, and watching her kill him had been the worst shock of Elena's life. Yet it had not been the last shock she had had with regards to her family history. Years later, she had learned that her father had been a bastard son of a whore, and that he had been a youth gang member before he joined the military. That was not entirely surprising, but she had not expected that.

During the interview with the old woman, she learned that her grandmother had rented out her father as a child sex slave.

***

Gregor sighed as he put down the report.

According to the genetic evidence, Prince Xav's son had had an adulterous affair with Lady Vorinnis, and his maternal grandmother, Tatiana Vorinnis, was their biological child. Shortly after his grandmother's birth, his great-grandmother had apparently committed suicide. However, there was no evidence to rule out the possibility that Lord Vorinnis, who, until now, Gregor had assumed was his great-grandfather, had in fact murdered her.

It turned out that, like Miles and Ivan, Gregor himself was a direct descendant of Xav Vorbarra. He even had a trickle of offworld blood in him. This had never come to light before because, even though Gregor had been gene-scanned before his birth, his genes had only been checked for medical reasons and to confirm his _paternal_ lineage. Nobody had seriously investigated his _maternal_ lineage before - at least in Gregor's lifetime.

Yet his grandfather, Ezar Vorbarra, must have investigated his mother before betrothing her to his son. Gregor had a hard time believing that his grandfather had not found out this secret. Clearly, he had decided to bury it.

Had his mother known?

Gregor had been overwhelmed when he had learned the truth about his own father decades ago on Komarr. That was definitely the high point, or rather the low point, of learning horrible things about his ancestors' pasts. Yet, as the years went by, he never failed to learn even _more_ about the diverse set of skeletons in his family's closet, and as this case proved, not all skeletons were on his father's side.

He had resigned himself, long ago, to this fate. For the rest of his life, there would be no end to the revelations.

**Author's Note:**

> I really, really related to Miles in _Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen_. For that matter, I've really related to Elena when she finds out about her parents, and Gregor when he finds out about his father.
> 
> My grandfather, as a young person, could easily outdo young!Aral for tragedy and drama. My grandfather also made some really screwed up life decisions which, given his background, is somewhat understandable.
> 
> I've been aware for as long as I could remember that there was dark stuff in my family's past, particularly my grandfather's past. However, I was not prepared when I received an infodump about my grandfather as a teenager, and it was a very emotional experience. Like Elena and Gregor, I wonder how much of my grandfather's screwiness is a part of _me_ , either via genes, or by virtue of the fact that he shaped my mother's childhood, and my mother shaped mine. My mother had observed that I have certain personality traits in common with my grandfather.
> 
> Of course, it did not end when I was a teenager. Throughout my life, I've continued to learn dark stuff about my family's past, sometimes about my grandfather, sometimes about other people in my family. I have been resigned for quite a while to getting these revelations for the rest of my life. And just a few days ago, I learned yet another shocking new tidbit about my grandfather which, compared to other things I know about him, is quite minor, but I do not expect it to be the last shocking thing I ever learn about him. Anyway, that recent experience of learning *yet another dark thing* about my grandfather inspired this fic.


End file.
